1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a yellow-colored golf ball which can be manufactured without polluting the production line with a yellow pigment, which also has good appearance, offers superior visibility in cloudy or rainy weather, and makes such surface defects (i.e., flaw; peeling of the paint film) inconspicuous which are likely to occur due to shots.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many golf balls used in a golf practice range are white. In some golf practice ranges, use of colored golf balls, for example, yellow-colored golf balls, has begun to increase recently taking notice of their striking appearances. The golf practice range is utilized day and night and many of them are designed such that golfers hit balls from a roofed and shaded space toward a brighter field. For this reason, it is desirable that the yellow-colored golf balls is bright and clearly perceptible.
Japanese unexamined patent application No. H05-261166 discloses a yellow-colored golf ball having a golf ball body containing a yellow pigment and coated with a yellow enamel paint, wherein the difference in “b” value between before and after coating the enamel paint is not larger than 15.
The yellow-colored golf ball disclosed in Japanese unexamined patent application No. H05-261166 has a slight difference in color tone between the ball body and the enamel paint film, and hence such a color tone difference becomes apparent in a flawed or peeled portion when the golf ball is flawed or the paint film is peeled due to shots. Further, as the color tone difference between the underlying body and the paint film becomes larger with time, such a flawed or peeled portion of the golf ball becomes more conspicuous.
In an attempt to overcome the above problems, the inventor of the present invention has previously filed a Japanese application for the invention which is directed to a golf ball having a golf ball body containing a yellow pigment and coated with a clear paint. This golf ball has a color tone satisfying the following relationships: L≧85.0 and b=90 to 110, and hence has superior visibility.
Although the golf ball whose b value is adjusted so as to fall within the range between 90 and 110 is excellent in visibility, it requires a large amount of a yellow pigment. For this reason, the golf ball body production line, particularly the mold used therein, is likely to be polluted with the yellow pigment. This raises a problem that golf balls with a different color from yellow cannot be manufactured continuously on the same production line after the yellow-colored golf ball bodies are manufactured. It would be possible to prevent the mold from being polluted by reducing the content of the yellow pigment to decrease the b value. In this case, however, the primary object of the colored golf ball, namely to improve the visibility of the ball in cloudy or rainy weather, cannot be attained.
The present invention has been accomplished in view of the foregoing problems. It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a golf ball which can be manufactured without polluting the production line with the yellow pigment, has a good appearance, satisfies the required visibility in cloudy weather, even in rainy weather where the golf ball becomes less visible, and makes defects such as peeling and flaws in the paint film inconspicuous, which are likely to occur due to shots.